The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the IT products distribution business of Specialist Computer Holdings of the United Kingdom by Tech Data Europe, a wholesaler of IT, consumer electronics and telecommunication products. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns, because the parties have moderate market shares and will continue to face a number of competitors in all the markets concerned.

The Commission assessed the impact of the proposed concentration on the wholesale distribution markets for consumer electronics, IT and various categories of IT products, such as servers and storage devices in the European Economic Area (EEA)1 and in particular in France, the Netherlands and the UK.

The combined market shares of the parties are moderate in all of these markets. In addition, the parties will continue to face a number of competitors in these markets. The Commission therefore found that the proposed concentration would not significantly impede effective competition in the EEA or any substantial part of it.

The proposed concentration was notified to the Commission on 19 September 2012.

Companies and products

Tech Data Corporation, present in the EEA via its subsidiary Tech Data Europe, is a US-based international group involved primarily in the wholesale distribution of IT products.

The business to be acquired consists of the IT products distribution business and value-added distribution services of SCH in the EEA (and in the case of France based ETC Africa SAS - in Africa). It comprises the subsidiary companies of SCH in the UK (Specialist Distribution Group Limited and its subsidiary ISI Distribution Ltd), France (ETC Metrologie Sarl, Best’Ware France SA and ETC Africa SAS) and the Netherlands (SDG B.V. and its subsidiary ETC B.V.).

Merger control rules and procedures

The Commission has the duty to assess mergers and acquisitions involving companies with a turnover above certain thresholds (see Article 1 of the Merger Regulation and to prevent concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the EEA or any substantial part of it.

The vast majority of mergers do not pose competition problems and are cleared after a routine review. From the moment a transaction is notified, the Commission generally has a total of 25 working days to decide whether to grant approval (Phase I) or to start an in-depth investigation (Phase II).